Porn’s – Celebrity Pornsak’s Restaurant of Thai Food

Good food sells. So does star power. Pair the two together and you’ve got a winning formula to drawing in the crowd. The never-ending line of customers at Porn’s, the suggestively-named Thai restaurant at Liang Seah Street is testament to that fact.

Popular Singapore TV host Pornsak Prajakwit‘s venture into the restaurant business has attracted both fans and curious onlookers alike. According to the eatery’s young waitresses, their reservations are full through the next two months! If you can’t wait that long to try out Pornsak’s Thai food and spot the man himself, you may have some luck doing what I did.

On the day when I had planned to head down to Porn’s for dinner, I phoned in several times to reserve a table but no one answered. That very evening I headed down to try my luck anyway. They had just opened for dinner at 6pm, and was already full house! The waitresses apologised for not answering the phone all afternoon because reservations were already full. They penned down my name and promised to call us once a table freed up. Thankfully, it was only a half-hour wait, during which we enjoyed a nice Vietnamese drip coffee next door.

The premises are narrow, with tables spilling out into the corridor along the road. At the indoor seating area, white walls and a glass ceiling lend a clean and airy feel.

Even with a large crowd, all our orders arrive within 20 minutes.

Thai roselle & lime (Nam Ga Jeab)
S$3.90+
Rating:

The roselle & lime is a recommended item on the drinks menu. Served in a tall glass, the sweet and refreshing beverage is a nice reprieve from the succession of spicy dishes we are about to partake. Interestingly, it tastes like Ribena!

The iced water comes in glasses with two round depressions on the sides so that you can have a firm grip without the sweating glass slipping through your fingers.

Thai green curry (Gang Keaw Wan)
S$10.90+
Rating:

The green curry chicken is a staple at any Thai restaurant worth its salt. For someone who’s a huge fan of this ubiquitous Thai dish, it certainly does not disappoint. It boasts a thick curry gravy that is a perfect balance of sweet and salty, and an ample portion of chicken slices. My only gripe is that the curry is almost not spicy at all, but it is flavoursome enough for one to lap it all up. You never waste a good curry.

Thai lemongrass chicken (Gai Takai)
S$7+ for 3 pieces
Rating:

The dish that packs less of a punch is the Thai lemongrass chicken. This comprises of three chicken balls skewered and placed on a bed of lettuce. From the picture above, can you tell what’s so interesting about these?

The skewers aren’t the usual satay sticks, but the fibrous stems of lemongrass! That’s quite creative, don’t you think?

The minced chicken is very mildly flavoured with lemongrass and spices. To make up for the lack in taste, a Thai sweet chilli dip is provided on the side. Overall, this dish is rather forgettable as it lacks the sensory characteristics that make Thai cuisine enjoyable.

The minced chicken with basil leaves provides mouthful after mouthful of intense flavour. While the presentation clearly needs work and the meat is a little over-fried, I like that it retains the explosive quality of this popular Thai dish. Lerk Thai does a wonderful version of this dish, too.

Now, if you have come to Porn’s with the hopes of sighting Pornsak himself, you may be pleased to know that he does pop by. In fact, we spotted him behind the cash register and thanking customers!

Porn’s may be drawing in the crowd with its seductive name and star power, but it has proven that it is more than that. For a newcomer, the cooking is commendable. I will plan another visit when the furor dies down. From the looks of the crowd, that won’t be anytime soon.

Note: The 7% GST is absorbed in the food prices.

Have Your Say!

Would you visit a restaurant owned by a celebrity?

Yes! Who wouldn't?

Yes, but only for the food. I don't care much for celebrity sightings.

Thanks for the review! Will definitely try it out since i love Thai food.

Funny they used an elephant’s backside for their logo..

Just wondering if you’ve tried First Thai Cafe nearby on Purvis Street? That place is always packed too. Their seafood tom yum soup is heaven! Filled to the brim with seafood, massive prawns and a thick, full-flavoured soup to match – big enough to easily serve 4 people.

Hmmmm. A rather off-beat and unusual name. And i discovered much later on in the article that this restaurant is in Singapore and note in BKK. In Singapore and he got away with a name like that? I love that Kapow Gai though, and try to eat it here in Dubai as often as I can.

High 5! That minced chicken with basil is one of my top 3 favourite Thai dishes (along with green curry and the best Khao Mun Kai in Bangkok).

As for the name Porn’s, I was surprised too when I first heard of it. But then again there are already so many sex toy shops here in Singapore with risque names, and selling the actual naughty stuff. So it’s not that surprising that they allow a restaurant with such a name.

Yes, the food is certainly worth trying. The quality is quite close to Lerk Thai, which is commendable since the latter is an established chain. From reading other reviews, it seems that Pornsak is always at his restaurant! He was there when we visited.

Vastly disappointed. I went there today withy family at around 7. Crowds were starting to fill in, luckily we had reservation so no wait.

Service was close to horrible. Either business is really good or that they were severely understaffed. Staff weren’t rude, just that they were too busy to entertain us. Food arrived quickly though, that’s a good thing.

Food-wise, really spicy. We tried the recommended food. The minced pork with basil leave, Tom yum soup are really spicy. If you can’t stomach too spicy food, best to ask them to cut down on the chilli. The deep fried tofu is good, crispy on the outside. Lemongrass chicken, so-so. Rice cracker is not bad, together with the sauce.

We went to the restaurant to celebrate a friend’s birthday yesterday. The restaurant was packed at dinner time. When I arrived at the restaurant with my hubby and baby, my 3 other friends were already there. They were given a table on the corridor outside the restaurant (along the road), there was 1 extra chair for them to put their barang barang. As I was carrying a big bag with all my baby’s stuffs inside and the extra chair was already fully stacked with my friends’ barang barang, so I asked one of the restaurant staff (who looks like the crew captain) if he could bring me another chair for me to put my bag. He gave a NO staight away, saying that the restaurant was already short of chairs. Then he added rudely that he was even thinking of taking away the extra chair he gave us previously. After saying that, he walked away. We were taken aback by his response and service attitude. He did not even show the slightest effort in trying to solve the problem. Did he expect customers to put their barang barang on the floor of the corridor (which is not very clean and passer-by squeezing their way through) or hugging the barang barang while having their dinner? Yes, the restaurant was crowded at that time and may not be able to provide the extra chair that we need, if the service staff could explain it politely to us, we will definitely try to understand. Though the food at the restaurant was not bad, we will not go back to the restaurant again cos there are so many other places with both good food and good service.

tried porns when they opened like super long back, im not some kinda thai food god, but i know good food when i eat it, Porns food is good, but its pretentious. too much going on with “fancifying” everything. Go to thailand, see the cool cafes and bistros, they always stick to the same good recipes that are true to thai. but again theres something pretentious about porns food, at least i think.

imo the best thai fd in singapore WAS firstthai purvis, now its definitely nakhon, hougang and bedok. super stuff. true good shit.

I was in the restaurant in SAFRA today. I was very disappointed that the food came in very late. And they served two of my friend’s order one hour after we had ordered. By the time, the rest of us had already finished our food. We told the waitress many times to ask about the order, but to no avail.

What disappointed me is that the when the food finally arrived, the manager came and ask what happened. When we told him the problem, he just asked, “So do you still want it?”, without apologising or anything…

Went to the outlet at Safra last nite. Pornsak was there too. Quite empty, which is not surprising for a new place. Food was quite horrible. Orange curry tastes like Kimchi diluted with hot water. And the Olive rice was dry and hard. Quite surprising since both were restaurant’s recommendations. The stuffed chickenwing is nice, and similar to other restaurants.

To add on, you may wanna try Joe’s Thai Kitchen instead. It’s at Alexandra Village and manned by a Thai chef and his Singaporean wife. The food is good and very reasonably priced. The curry certainly wouldn’t taste like kimchi diluted with hot water. lol!

PORN SUCKS!! Extremely horrible service. Waited 0.5 hrs only to see our dishes. Could not touch the food becos ONLY our olive rice, the STAPLE did not arrive yet! Asked 3 waiters about it and still no response. Waited 15 mins, nothing happened. Our patience was running out! Tasted the dishes which were already COLD by then, green curry was diluted, minced pork was so-so. Left PORNS without having our dinner. SUCKS BIG TIME! Can’t be bothered to give it a 2nd chance.